Khwarazmian Empire

The Khwarazmian Empire was a Turco-Persian empire which existed from 1077 to 1231, with Urgench serving as its capital. It was founded by the Mameluke commander Anush Tigin Gharchai, a Turkic slave general and Governor of Khwarazm who broke away from the Seljuk Empire and founded the Khwarazmian Empire. As the Seljuk state fell into chaos, the Shahs of Khwarazm expanded southward, and the last Great Seljuk sultan, Toghrul III, was killed in battle with the Khwarazmain ruler Ala ad-Din Tekish in 1194, and Khwarazm conquered parts of Khorasan and western Iran. The Khwarazmians also went to war with the Ghurids during the early 13th century, and, starting in 1218, the Mongol Empire invaded Khwarazm and destroyed its major cities of Bukhara, Urgench, and Samarkand in retaliation for the Khwarazmian murder of Mongol envoys. Jalal ad-Din Mingburnu, the last Khwarazmian shah, attempted to flee to India, but he was defeated by the Mongols at Indus, chased out of India by the Delhi Sultanate, and forced to flee back to Central Asia, where he initiated a massive uprising against the Mongols. His resurgent state was destroyed by the Sultanate of Rum at the Battle of Yassicemen in 1230, and he was murdered in 1231 by Kurdish highwaymen, destroying Khwarazm. Several Khwarezmians moved to the Levant to serve as Ayyubid mercenaries, capturing Jerusalem in 1244 and later defeating a crusader army at the Battle of La Forbie that same year. The Khwarezmians in Egypt remained Ayyubid mercenaries until Sultan al-Mansur Ibrahim suppressed them, while the Khwarezmians taken captive by the Mongols were assimilated as the Sartuul clan.